Let’s Talk About Hell, Shall We? Part 2

Point 2: Hell is not Torment for Torment’s Sake

What comes to mind when you think of Hell? For most of us, it’s a mostly naked, male muscular demon ruling over a cavernous domain of fire. The joke goes, once an engineer was mistakenly sent down there and by the time the error was discovered, he had installed air conditioning making it more bearable. We politely laugh as someone repeats that joke for the thousandth time, but miss the assumption underlying this and many other discussions on Hell: the suffering in Hell is a feature that is both punitive and avoidable. In other words, it’s a belief that God made Hell uncomfortable out of malice.

One prominent feature in our notion of Hell is the fire and brimstone, and this comes directly from the pages of scripture. By far the most common picture the Bible paints of Hell is a place of eternal flame (See for example Matthew 13:50, 25:41, Revelation 20:15).

What many don’t realize is that fire is not the only image the Bible gives of Hell. It’s also described as being shut out of the great feast (Matthew 25:10-12), being cast into the outer darkness (Matthew 22:13, 25:30, Jude 13), and being excluded from the city of God (Revelation 22:14-15). Jesus also uses the refrain ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’ to describe the experience (Matthew 8:12, 25:13, Luke 13:28).

These two metaphors (fire and darkness) are meant to highlight theological, not physical, realities of Hell. I’ll give two points of proof. First, the Bible is clear that our bodies don’t go to Hell. We fear fire and darkness because we interact with the world as bodily beings. Literal fire and darkness, as far as I understand, will not present much problem for the unfettered souls of man. The second reason is what fire and darkness represent. God’s first recorded action is creation. Before He spoke, the world was formless and dark. Hell’s darkness represents a return to that and the fire represents destruction and deconstruction. Fire consumes; that’s what it does. We as a species have managed to tame fire by allowing it to carry out controlled destruction so we can reap some benefits, but fire itself is a destructive force. In a sense it reverses creation, bringing darkness and formlessness from order and beauty.

If we accept this, then we can say that Hell is an exile from God’s creation. It is to spend eternity without God and unable to benefit from the fruit of His work. It’s essentially receiving what we’ve asked for our entire lives: freedom from God. There’s a phrase the Bible uses a number of times to illustrate this: God giving sinners over to their desires (Psalm 81:11-12, Acts 7:42, Romans 1:24, Ephesians 4:17-19, 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12). It’s used a form of judgment so that those who resist God are eventually allowed to go their own way.

Theologians, inspired by reading scripture, have coined a term ‘common grace’. Common grace is that gift that God gives to all people allowing them to seek their prosperity here in this life. The earth doesn’t test for faith in Jesus before responding to the farmer’s efforts with fruit. Christians and non-Christians alike are gifted with intellect and creativity to make a living. The danger in common grace is that it is taken for granted and used as an excuse to continue living as though God is not the rightful ruler of all things. We treasure God’s gifts but deny the giver. But one day, common grace will be removed and all will see exactly how dependent we truly are on God’s providence.

For He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. – Matthew 5:45

The Lord upholds all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
The eyes of all look to You,
and You give them their food in due season.
 You open your hand;
You satisfy the desire of every living thing.  – Psalm 145:14-16

Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before Him. But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.  – Ecclesiastes 8:11-13

None of this is to deny or explain away the torment of Hell. There isn’t a single verse in the Bible that promises any comfort but many speak to its torment. ‘Weeping and gnashing of teeth’ is meant to describe pain and misery. But it’s not as though God adds to the misery of Hell to make a point. To be separated from God is to be separated from all that is good. When we see ‘God is love’ and ‘God of all comfort’ and ‘The Lord of peace’, we begin to sense the cost of His total absence.

Click here for part three